Killing The Klamath River

[Keta]

The fishing on Upper Klamath Lake was never "hot" but the redband trout are large.  In the last 10 years the trout numbers have declined.  I was on the lake from sun up to after sundown on Friday and Saturday harvesting algae and saw no jumping trout.  Agency Lake is in better shape but not what it was in the past.  The trout fishing in the Williamson River should be picking up with the cool weather and the fishing on the Wood River should be good now.

[Gfish]

My first use/ownership of a baitcaster was on the shoreline of the Lake in the Winter, using a night crawler on a bottom rig. Didn't really know what I was doing casting or fishing at a new-to-me place. When I unexpectedly got bit, I got so excited I dropped the reel, and unbeknownst to me, the drag star hit a rock and bent. Every time I cranked the handle, the star hit the reel and would loosen-up. Of course I lost a nice Trout, got frustrated with using that type of reel and pissed about how cheap that Shimano Bantam seemed to be. Would of looked pretty funny to anyone watching...
After that, I mostly fished the Williamson River, which was great in the evening and at night.

[Keta]

Spring Creek keeps the Williamson River cool in the summer and "warmer" during a hard winter.

[jurelometer]

More good news -Nov 18, 2025:

From California Department of of Fish and Wildlife:

"The speed at which salmon are repopulating every nook and cranny of suitable habitat upstream of the dams in the Klamath Basin is both remarkable and thrilling," said Michael Harris, Environmental Program Manager of CDFW's Klamath Watershed Program. "There are salmon everywhere on the landscape right now, and it's invigorating our work."

https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/salmon-everywhere-one-year-after-klamath-dam-removal

It is worth noting that at the one year mark, this is the just the start of the recovery, with fish counts in the dozens to low hundreds at the various spots, but nonetheless very good news. This success is accelerating  other efforts to improve habitat in the watershed. The calculated risk of a one-shot, heavy disbursement of sediment appears to be paying off.

While it is getting sort of common to denigrate scientists working in government, it is worth remembering that no science grad got into government work to get rich. And it looks like these guys knew what they were doing after all.

My thanks to all of them!  Score one for Team Science.

-J

[Gfish]

Cool! That's what I like to hear.

[JasonGotaProblem]

We're on the verge of needing to rename this thread